Havana Cuba Business Travel Culture and Politics

Cuban Americans Archive 2009

December 2009

BY GERARDO REYES | El Nuevo Herald Fifty-one years after a hijacked airliner plunged into the dark waters of a Cuban bay, killing 14 people onboard, the man who has been portrayed as the lead suspect now living in Miami will not be prosecuted under federal law, unless new evidence emerges. Citing the… Read More

September 2009

(Original title: In tough economic times, public opinion shifts on Cuba embargo) By David Adams | TampaBay.com We all know how Cuba excites passions in political debates from Miami to Tampa. Thursday night, Rep. David Rivera, a Miami Republican, and Naples cattleman John Parke Wright IV locked horns… Read More

By CURT ANDERSON | Associated Press (original title: Judge: Cuba must pay $27.5M for jailing journalist) MIAMI — A federal judge ordered the Cuban government and the ruling Communist Party on Wednesday to pay $27.5 million in damages to the mother of a journalist jailed since a 2003 crackdown on dissent.… Read More

August 2009

By MIKE SCHNEIDER | Associated Press Republican Sen. Mel Martinez of Florida said Friday he will resign from the Senate as soon as a replacement can be appointed, leaving the seat more than a year before his term ends. Martinez, the only Hispanic Republican in the Senate, revealed his plans in a statement… Read More

July 2009

BY JAY WEAVER | Miami Herald The trademarks for two famous Cuban brands—Havana Club rum and Cohiba cigars—could be sold to the highest bidder if a Miami-Dade family who lost a loved one to Castro’s firing squad prevails in court. Relatives of the late Bobby Fuller, who won a $100 million… Read More

May 2009

By CURT ANDERSON | AP A Miami judge has awarded more than $1 billion in damages to a Cuban-American who was involved in the 1967 capture and killing of revolutionary Ernesto “Che” Guevara. Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Peter Adrien said Friday he was sending a signal to the Cuban government. Such… Read More

Rob Sequin | Havana Journal Megan Williams, the Director/Producer of Tell Me Cuba sent me the DVD and asked me to have a look at it. We had a brief phone conversation but we did not talk about politics too much so I wasn’t sure which way the film would lean. Of course I was assuming there would… Read More

David Adams | St Petersburg Times Miami’s “Calle Ocho” always sounded more exotic than it actually was. Officially known as SW Eighth Street, the main thoroughfare running east-west through the heart of Little Havana, the city’s Cuban-American district, never had much to offer… Read More

By WILL WEISSERT | Associated Press Writer The human mule is in her 70s, gaunt and hunched over with short, white hair and the deeply wrinkled face of a chain-smoker. She lives in Miami with her daughter but wanted to see her son and grandson in Cuba. After nearly three years of saving, she still didn’t… Read More

On May 15th, 2009 Touro College Sunset branch in Brooklyn acquired the painting “Art Gallery” by Cuban American Artist Jose Acosta. The painting will be displayed at the Touro College Sunset branch, as this is the branch with the largest population of Hispanic students. Jose Acosta… Read More

BY LUISA YANEZ, DOUGLAS HANKS AND LAURA FIGUEROA | Miami Herald There was a time when advertising Viajes a Cuba on a storefront was an invitation to a pipe bombing. In the politically charged Miami of the late 1970s and ‘80s, the FBI investigated more than a dozen blasts at Cuba travel agencies—considered… Read More

AFP Cuban-Americans are glad they no longer have US restrictions on how often they can visit the island, but in times of global economic crisis plenty are not planning to pack their bags soon. For Mario Salazar, who came to Miami from Cuba 23 years ago, the landmark gesture by President Barack Obama… Read More

Damien Cave | Miami Herald A 14-page proposal from the Cuban American National Foundation lays out what the document calls “a break from the past” that would “chart a new direction for U.S.-Cuba policy.” It is the basis of an ongoing discussion with the Obama administration, White House and foundation… Read More

March 2009

Patrick Doherty | The Havana Note Senator Menendez, the Dike has Burst There he was, Senator Bob Menendez, Democrat of New Jersey, holding forth from the well of the Senate making his Alamo stand against some very innocuous provisions to allow Cuban-American family members travel to Cuba and for American… Read More

OFFICE OF FOREIGN ASSETS CONTROL Cuban Assets Control Regulations 31 CFR Part 515 Questions and Answers for use in connection with the implementation of the General License issued by the Office of Foreign Assets Control on March 11, 2009, covering visits to family in Cuba. Is the general license issued… Read More

By TED JACKOVICS | The Tampa Tribune Tampa International Airport could become the fourth U.S. airport to serve U.S.-Cuba charter flights under a request by U.S. Rep Kathy Castor, D-Tampa. In a Feb. 3 letter to U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Castor said the move would improve travel prospects for… Read More

February 2009

University of Miami Cuba Transition Project email The Honorable Carlos Gutiérrez, former Secretary of Commerce under the George W. Bush administration, has been named a non-resident scholar at the University of Miami’s Institute for Cuban and Cuban-American Studies (ICCAS). Gutierrez will be based… Read More

By Rocco Staino | School Library Journal Vamos a Cuba (Heinemann, 2001), a controversial book by Alta Schreier that paints a rosy picture of life in the communist country, can be removed from Miami-Dade County school libraries, ruled a panel of judges on the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The ruling… Read More